Justin looked around silently chewing on his bottom lip, pondering how he would bring up something he'd been thinking about for months. The conversation in general was sure to piss his band-mates off, the guys he had always thought of as his brothers. "I uhm..." he stuttered pathetically. Growling harshly at himself he stared into each one of their awaiting eyes, knowing they were chomping at the bit to find out why he had called this meeting.

He just couldn't find the right words, more or less the right way to crush their dreams. Which he knew would be the case. They had always said they would ride it out for as long as they would last. But lately he felt like something was missing, yes he had everything, the fame, money, fancy cars, he had it great, but selfishly he wanted more.

God they had fought so hard to gain the level of respect they had in the industry now, between all the shit they had to overcome, and here he was being selfish plain and simple.

Tired of standing in the middle of the room he plopped down in the nearest chair and ran his hands over his shaven head sighing softly. After collecting his thoughts he looked up once more and stared ahead at all of them. "Before i start i want you guys to know i love you as my brothers and nothing will ever change that." he paused, waiting for them to nod their heads.

"We've had a great run these past few years and we said a few months ago that we needed a break from the demands so i got to thinking. Why don't we take a hiatus? Let's rest up for a while have a small vacation. Do whatever. Ya know just chill. We've worked non-stop since we signed with jive." He chewed nervously on his bottom lip, while they sat there and said nothing each one mulling over the option in their minds.

"What's the catch Justin?" Chris asked skeptically speaking the question that was on every one of their minds, but was too afraid to voice.

His eyes widened upon his friends shocking question. "Uhm... nothing." he sputtered.

"Right, a month ago you were all about us doing another album, but ever since you're meeting with jive..."

"It has nothing to do with that." Justin growled immediately becoming defensive.

"Then what do you want to do on this HIATUS?" Chris asked adding quotation marks with his fingers.

"I told you I want a break. We've been working constantly since we signed on with Jive." Justin shrugged.

"It just sounds kind of fishy, you have been writing constantly in that notebook of yours, are you sure you're not going to go off and do something on your own?"

"Why does it matter Chris?"

"Because we are your brothers, were supposed to be honest with each other."

He knew he should tell them but he just couldn't get the words out past the lump in his throat and the way that Chris was looking at him like he wanted to just burn him alive with his sight alone he knew that right now would not be a good time to let the guys in on his secret he'd kept from them for months.

"I'm going to do nothing but relax at home, and take a few vacations maybe go down to Tennessee and visit my family. Something to just unwind little."

"What do you guys think?" Chris asked looking over at the rest of the guys. He watched as they all internalized what had just been said and couldn't believe it when they all agreed to take a break it was like someone had stabbed him in the chest, this group was his baby he didn't know what he was going to do without it. They'd spent the last 6 years together non-stop and tonight would be the last night Nsync would be together. Wow this really sucked. "I don't understand how all of you can just sit there and let him tear us apart? How you can just willingly agree to breaking up."

"Because Chris, like Justin said we are all tired. A little break won't hurt us. We'll take a couple months off then get back in the studio and bust out another album." JC said shrugging it off like it was no big deal.

"Whatever." Chris said slamming his hands down on his knees. He stood up from his perch on the side of the couch and walked towards the door, he needed to get out of here before he rang Justin's scrawny little neck. "I guess after tonight we will go our separate ways." He finished it off by opening up the door and slamming it closed after he left.

Justin watched everyone leave one by one, and wished he could take it all back, the looks on each of their faces was enough to make him want to crawl under a rock and never surface again. He felt like he had just crushed each one of their dreams. So when a hand was brought down on his shoulder it startled him, looking up at the owner he smiled tentatively.

"It will be okay Justin, we do need this, and we all know Chris will come out of it. Just give him some time." Jc smiled reassuringly squeezing his shoulder and walking out after the rest of the guys, and left Justin with his thoughts.

"Oh god what have I done." He sighed sadly putting his head in his hands.

Couple Months Later
March
LA, California

He stood leaning against the bar of one of LA's most popular clubs, he was scanning the crowd and waiting for his girlfriend to come back from using the restroom. As his eyes passed over the people in front of him, a girl caught his eyes, doing a double take he stared at her intently. He let his eyes gravitate up and down her body soaking in every last detail to see if his assumption was correct. Starting at the top of her head where her hair blondish-brown hair fell in waves down her back, then to her profile, where he could see a little bit of her oval shaped face, down her curvy figure where her jeans hugged her hips perfectly down her long legs, an stopped at the opened toed sandals she was sporting. When she turned and met his eyes she winked, he knew exactly who it was.

"MACKENZIE" he heard himself shout over the thumping base of the club. He watched her look at him like he was crazy person, and waited while her eyes looked him over and when recognition dawned on her he watched as she pushed her way through the throngs of people to get to him.

"Justin, is that really you?" She questioned disbelief written all over her features. She couldn't believe after so many years he was actually standing in front of her. She had seen him on TV so many times over the years but to see him up close and personal was a whole different story.

"Yeah, Kenz it is." He smiled softly. She was definitely a site for sore eyes, he had always wondered over the years exactly what had happened to her. He remembered on one mini vacations he had gone back to Tennessee, he had asked his mom about her an all she could tell him was that she had moved a long time ago. Now 4 years later she stood in front of him looking better than ever.

"God how have you been?' she asked tearing him away from his thoughts.

"Good, but I'm sure you've heard that." he said with a slight blush. God he was blushing, what the hell. "How about you?"

"I'm doing really good. Of course I've heard about how well you and the guys are doing." and other things she finished silently.

"Yeah...." he trailed off when he felt a hand slither its way around his waist and out of the corner of his eyes he saw the blonde hair of his girlfriend.

"Who's this Justy?" she purred in her southern twang.

Clearing his throat from the sudden dryness he felt. Just what he needed his ex-girlfriend and his now girlfriend to meet. "Brit, this is my friend Mackenzie. Kenzie this is my girlfriend Britney." He just now realized how easy the childhood nickname slid right off his tongue.

"Hi Britney, it's a pleasure to meet you." Kenzie said offering her hand out to the other girl. Not missing the nickname that seem to melt her whole body every time she heard him say it.

"HI." she sneered blowing off her hand, and turning her attention to Justin. "Justy I'm ready to go, this club is lame." she whined softly.

"Well Brit, I'm not ready to leave, why don't you find some of your girls and go talk." Justin said peeling her claws off of him and putting her arms at her side.

"But Justy" she whined again, causing Justin's teeth to grind at the sound. She pouted her lips out and stared at him sadly.

"You know that doesn't work. Come on Britney just go enjoy yourself we'll leave in a little bit. I would like to catch up with my friend."

"Fine." She replied hotly turning on her heel and stomped off with her nose in the air. "I'll show you catch up with a friend" she seethed spotting a very familiar spiky blonde hair. "Oh hey wade."

Justin watched her stomp off and wondering silently what he ever saw in her, she was in his opinion a spoiled brat, and the only reason he was with her was because of their record label. "Sorry about her." he said with a blush. There he went again with another blush. God he felt like he was back in the ninth grade and was just caught peeking into the girls bathroom.

"Oh don't worry about it. Maybe you should go, we could always exchange numbers and catch up later." she offered half-heartedly she really wanted to continue this.

"Oh no it's okay. I would rather talk to you than leave with her."

"She looked rather upset, are you sure you shouldn't go after her?"

"No, she will get over it." he smiled staring deeply into her doe shaped eyes; "Do you want to go sit down and catch up?"

"Sure." she replied taking his outstretched hand and allowed him to lead her through the throng of people. She really didn't know what she was doing at that moment, she had always said that she would never talk to him if he ever came back in her life, and she was doing exactly the opposite. But damn did it feel good to have his smooth hand clasped with hers. And having his deep blue eyes stare into her own hazel ones had sent shivers up and down her spine; she hadn't had a man cause that kind of reaction in her in a very long time.

He came to a stop at a table in the back where the music wasn't so loud and held out a chair for her and waited for her to sit before he took the one in front of her, and raised his glass towards her. "To old memories good and bad" He said clinking his glass with hers.

She clinked hers with his and smiled over the rim, yeah good and bad, she thought.

"So Kenz what have you been up to all these years?"

"I moved out of my parents, and moved out here with Abigail and my brother. You remember them?' she asked softly, and continued when he nodded. "I'm currently attending UCLA to be a medical assistant." God she felt horrible for not mentioning Brea but she just couldn't let herself give her up yet, and she really didn't want to explain or lie out right to his face. But she technically was by not mentioning her to him.

"That's awesome. How's school going?"

"I just started my second term and its all straight medical classes I'm stressed to the max but it will be worth it in the end."

"I'm happy for you Kenz. How's Hayden i haven't seen him in years?"

"He's good he's a cop now, and working on becoming a detective in homicide. He's come a long way since his teen years, and getting away from our parents helped him a lot."

"That's way cool; he was such a trouble maker. I'm glad he has done something with his life. I always kind of looked up to him an in away." He replied taking a sip of his drink. "So when did you move out here?"

"Uhm, It's been a couple years now, I moved out here when my dau..." She trailed off and wanted to slap herself she couldn't believe that she almost told him about Brea when she swore she wouldn't. She cleared her throat and quickly thought of a cover up. "I moved out here when my parents kicked me out, long story don't ask." she waved the thought away.

He had caught the slip plain as day and was going to call her on it, but didn't want to cause problems when she had just barely came back in his life, so he made a mental note to ask her later. "Sounds like a very interesting couple of years. I'm sure you have heard everything that's gone on with me, so i don't have to tell you. Not to sound conceited or anything."

"Not at all, i followed you for a little bit after you left to make sure you got the success you deserved and always wanted. But then i got involved in my own life. So how are the guys? And what is next for Nsync?"

Scratching the back of his neck she would be the first person to really find out what was really going on behind the scenes because he couldn't lie to her and never been able to. At one point this women was everything to him, and he had thrown it away over his career and had kicked himself in the rear ever since.

He had missed so much time with her, and he looked at her now and realized just how much he fucked up. He should have fought harder to take her with him; he should have made more of an effort to keep in touch instead of letting this huge block of time go by, he felt like he had missed out a lot of her life. And it made him regret the success he had.

"Justin? Is everything okay?" She asked furrowing her eyebrow at his blank stare. She waved a hand in front of his face to try and get his attention.

"Yeah sorry I was thinking." He said clearing his throat and shooting back the rest of his drink, grimacing slightly at the burn down his throat. "We uh are taking a break." he said quietly.

"What?"

"We decided to take a little hiatus; we've been working non-stop since signing with Jive and needed a breather." Well that wasn't all the way true it was more of less him taking the break whether they liked it or not, so he could be selfish and try it out on his own. God he felt like an ass.

"Oh wow, the way ya'll had been going I thought you would be together forever." she smiled

That was a like a dagger to his heart, because so did he, he never thought in his wildest dreams that he would want to go out and do something on his own and leave his brothers, his security blanket if you will to venture out and see what was out there. It was a very low blow and he hadn't even told them the truth, it was killing him.

"To be honest, Jive offered me a deal. They want me to come out with my own album and see if i can make it out on my own. I've been writing a lot of stuff and will start recording next week that's why I'm here tonight to kind of relax before it gets really hectic."

"Wow." She supplied with a tilt of her head, she knew it must be killing him to have to leave the guys. It was everything he had always talked about growing up and he was finally getting it but at what cost?

"I know I'm a self-centered bastard for taking the deal but I just want to see if I can do it. You know me, this was my dream from the beginning was to get out on my own and entertain. I love the guys, and the band but i think this will do me good. I've been feeling like something is missing for a long time, and when they came to me with this I was ecstatic. But i feel..."

"Like your skipping out on the group?" she said finishing his sentence.

"Yes. Bad part is I haven't told the guys the whole truth just that i wanted break. I couldn't sit there and look them in the face and tell him that I was going out on my own. It would kill them all, especially Chris because it was his baby. Oh and then the fans they would go ballistic, if they found out."

"Justin i have met many of your fans, and i know they would be happy for you and support you. The guys will take time but I'm sure they will see it was for the best, and it's not like you all can't get back together later on and do another album."

"True." he said nibbling on his bottom lip. Reaching across the table he grabbed one of her hands and held it. "I knew you would understand."

"Justin I've known you for so long and this will be good for you. I'll support you the whole way." She smiled reaching over to pat his hand. Before she could voice her next thought her phone began to vibrate across the table with Hayden flashing across the screen. Snatching it up she held up a finger to Justin and answered it.

"Hey Hay what's going on?"

"Sorry to bother you sis, but i was trying to put Brea down for the night and she started crying hysterically and won't stop." he paused long to shush the toddler, "I don't know what to do, can you please come home?"

"Yeah I'll be on my way in a second." She agreed wondering how she was going to leave Justin and what excuse she was going to come up with. She really wasn't ready to tell him about Brea yet. "I'll be home in a second, just keep doing what you're doing with her and I'll be there."

Well it was going to come out sooner or later, after saying their goodbyes she flipped the phone shut and looked up at Justin apologetically. "God J I'm so sorry but I'm going to have to cut this short. See uhm, when i said i got kicked out, well I was pregnant."

"Oh..." he didn't honestly know what to say, that was completely out of left field. So he stared dumbfounded at her.

"She's 3 years old. My parents didn't agree with my choices to keep her and kicked me out. I stayed with Hayden till i found a job and we moved out on our own with Abigail. I was here with Abby tonight celebrating school, and Hayden offered to watch her. Told me I needed to take a night for myself. But since I'm not there she is upset and won't go to bed. So I need to go home and put her to bed."

"Do you mind if I come?"

"Uhm," God what did she say, she really wanted to continue this conversation with him, it was like all the years hadn't passed and they were teens again just hanging out, all the same feelings were smacking her right back in the face, even of abandonment when he didn't call her back.

But maybe she could get her answers if they continued to talk, but there was no way she was going to tell him that Breanna was his, he didn't need that right now not with him trying to work on his album, and she really didn't want him to feel obligated to take care of them. Plus he had a girlfriend. That fact had been made pretty damn clear tonight.

"Sure, just uhm let me get my coat and tell Abigail." She said smiling tentatively at him and then stocking off to retrieve her coat.

Wow she was a mother, that fact was still mulling around in his mind, he had so many questions he wanted to ask her, and so many feelings slamming him at once, he felt like he was swimming in them. And ones that he thought were squashed a very long time ago, but they were making their presence known. He knew leaving the club with her when he came with Britney would look bad but at the moment he really didn't care especially when he had seen her hanging all over Wade for most the night, and he probably would have cared if it weren't for Mackenzie.

That relationship had been over for a very long time it was more media relations than anything else. Looking down at his watch he noted it had been a whole ten minutes since she had left and began to wonder if she was ditching him. Which he didn't blame her if he did because he had just left her many years ago, and never made a move to contact her even though he kicked himself in the ass every minute he was with her tonight.

Just when he was about to give up and leave by himself he saw her blonde head pop up over the crowd and begin making her way over here. "I was beginning to think you were going to ditch me."

"Oh no, Abby was asking me all sorts of questions I left my car keys with her so she would have a way home so could you drive me home?"

"Sure no problem." He said with a wink. Motioning with his hand for her to lead the way, he waited till she walked in front of him and followed her out of the club.